The present invention relates to cartridge magazines for firearms, and more particularly, to improvements in both loading and retaining a bullet or cartridge within the magazine.
Conventional cartridge magazines include a housing having a mouth for bullet entry at an end thereof, a follower moveable within the housing and a biasing structure for biasing the follower toward the mouth. The mouth of the housing is constructed and arranged to retain the bullets in the housing, under the bias applied thereto by the biasing structure yet allow access by the bolt structure to contact the forward-most cartridge and move it into the barrel for firing.
Magazines of this type are generally known in the art. One is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,127,954. This magazine includes two opposing lips that are spaced apart defining a portion of a passageway. The lips overlie either side of the passageway and cartridge, yet are spaced a distance apart less than a diameter of the cartridge or bullet. The passageway further includes a channel sized to permit entry of the cartridge into the mouth. As shown in FIG. 1, such arrangement requires two distinct movements to load a cartridge into the magazine. First, the cartridge is introduced at an angle into the channel with sufficient force so as to overcome the bias of the biasing structure. Next, the cartridge is then moved forward under the lips of the mouth such that the lips retain the cartridge within the mouth, against the bias of the biasing structure.
These magazines suffer from the drawback that the loading of the cartridges requires several distinct cartridge movements and is difficult, thereby requiring a certain skill, since the cartridges cannot be directly introduced through the lips and retained in the mouth of the magazine.
To obviate the above mentioned drawback, a device has been proposed to permit a cartridge to be introduced into the mouth of the magazine upon a single movement and thereafter be retained within the housing against the bias of the biasing structure. Such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,818 which includes a spring member and a pawl. The pawl is pivotally coupled to the mouth opening so as to rotate between a bullet retaining position and a bullet entry position. However, this device suffers from the drawback that the pawl and spring member are disposed on an exposed outer surface of the housing near the mouth and are susceptible to damage due to mishandling of the device.